I know that there is still not a worldwide standard for ISRC in WAV files, but as of now, where is the best place to embed the ISRC code in a WAV file and exactly what tab would I use in the Wavelab metadata options?

The place that Sequoia uses is the EBU defined space. And they advertise as being the first to do so. But there's space for this in Wavelab defined in this thread:viewtopic.php?f=189&t=43863&p=265845#p265845Metadata in wav has gotten extremely complicated.

PG, the Wikipedia page for ID3 says ID3v2 is widely used in MP3 and AIFF (where it's stored in an IFF chunk called ID3). Then it says that this could be done in WAV, but isn't. Are you the first to do this? I think it's great if that's the case, but I don't think I've seen this anywhere else.

Wikipedia is wrong. ID3v2 is supported in Wav by a variety of softwares. For instance, VLC, one of the most used multimedia reader, supports it (try to add a picture to a .wav, from WaveLab, and it will appear in VLC).

PG wrote:Wikipedia is wrong. ID3v2 is supported in Wav by a variety of softwares. For instance, VLC, one of the most used multimedia reader, supports it (try to add a picture to a .wav, from WaveLab, and it will appear in VLC).

Thanks PG. That's great.One question. Since the EBU standard for ISRC is one of the accepted (and possibly required) places to put the code, would it be possible in an update to include that block of text, with an ISRC variable, in a preset somewhere on the AXML chunk page?

PG wrote:Wikipedia is wrong. ID3v2 is supported in Wav by a variety of softwares. For instance, VLC, one of the most used multimedia reader, supports it (try to add a picture to a .wav, from WaveLab, and it will appear in VLC).

Thanks PG. That's great.One question. Since the EBU standard for ISRC is one of the accepted (and possibly required) places to put the code, would it be possible in an update to include that block of text, with an ISRC variable, in a preset somewhere on the AXML chunk page?

Yes, I would also really appreciate a more obvious and official place to place the ISRC code in a WAV file

Rat wrote:Could someone please help me understand the practical use for this. In the context that, for example, iTunes Producer still requires you to enter the ISRC manually.

Paul, you're absolutely right. All of this still requires a lot of extra work entering from here to there. Last time I checked Tunecore it also required manual ISRC entry. I think at this point it's more about just having the code in there somewhere, not that it's going to pass on down the line smoothly. At some point the record labels will start asking for it in wav I think, just as they do for CD masters now. One thing that really surprised me is that the record labels or distributors don't even use the ISRC field that's in ID3 for their MP3s and AACs. They have their own custom fields in ID3 for the ISRC. It's kind of crazy IMO, but I guess it works for them. You can't buy a song off iTunes, open it up in a tag editor and look at the ISRC code in the ISRC field. It's not there. It's hidden in a custom field, and the field seems to be different for different retailers. CDs you can load and read the ISRC, but not AACs from iTunes or MP3s from Amazon. (at least the last time I checked a few months ago). Getting the ISRC from the Wav to the AAC or MP3 is mapping that they're going to have to do.

Rat wrote:How are you producing a report for a batch of files for a quality control check and have the client sign off on the ISRCs allocated?

The way I do it is from a montage, with a sheet like the CD report. Since I'm usually supplying album files just like the CD, it seems to work ok.

Last edited by bob99 on Tue Sep 03, 2013 7:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Thanks PG, I didn't know. Most record companies make their own AAC and MP3 files anyway (or the retailers do), but even if we made those files, iTunes puts the ISRC in a different custom field than Amazon does. And I think Amazon different than Google. So it's sort of a no win situation. They sort it out on their end anyway. At this point, even if we could figure out ways to get it into exactly the right spaces in the ID3 in wav, they probably wouldn't want that because they have their own systems in place for doing what they're doing.

btw, I think you've done an amazing job with the metadata section. I can't imagine any other program's come close.

Last edited by bob99 on Tue Sep 03, 2013 8:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.

btw, I think you've done an amazing job with the metadata section. I can't imagine any other program's come close.

I agree

I also agree. The metadata features are the main thing that keep me using Wavelab on a daily basis. I'm too far deep into the OSX world to use a PC (even in BootCamp) so in my opinion Wavelab is quite easily the best overall OSX option for mastering (especially if you need more than 2 audio tracks/lanes.

PG, sorry, jperkinski's and my ISRC request got followed by too many long posts by me, so got buried, but this was the gist:

Would it be possible to build into a Wavelab update a more elegant way of having the EBU standard ISRC coded in WAV? I know I can paste the EBU xml code into the axml box, but it seems like there's probably a more user friendly way to build this into the program, with the requisite code already there, maybe even just a factory preset, I don't know. The EBU standard is the way approved by IFPI and USISRC, so I think that's going to be the official field the record labels are going to ask for when they start asking for ISRC in WAV.

jperkinski, in the meantime you can copy and paste the following xml into the AXML box, and just leave it there, or save it as a preset. I've put the Wavelab ISRC variable in there so it will derive the ISRC for each file from the ISRCs in your montage.

jperkinski, in the meantime you can copy and paste the following xml into the AXML box, and just leave it there, or save it as a preset. I've put the Wavelab ISRC variable in there so it will derive the ISRC for each file from the ISRCs in your montage.

Thanks! I will add this to my default metadata settings in the montage.

bob99 wrote:Pjperkinski, in the meantime you can copy and paste the following xml into the AXML box, and just leave it there, or save it as a preset. I've put the Wavelab ISRC variable in there so it will derive the ISRC for each file from the ISRCs in your montage.